Opinion: Justin Verlander calls out MLB's free-agency system as 'broken,' and he's right

There's clearly a problem when the biggest move to happen in the MLB offseason was to have Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray decide that he didn't want to play baseball.

With superstars Bryce Harper and Manny Machado on the free-agent market, Major League Baseball could have thrived on the drama that makes the NBA a yearlong soap opera. Instead, Harper and Machado (and plenty of other talented players) remain unsigned. And spring training has arrived. Pitchers and catchers started reporting to camp on Monday as a number of free agents still await contract offers.

Justin Verlander had seen enough.

The Houston Astros pitcher took to Twitter on Monday and called out baseball's "broken" system. Verlander wrote that he was tired of hearing teams blame rebuilding for not moving on Machado or Harper.

100 or so free agents left unsigned. System is broken. They blame “rebuilding” but that’s BS. You’re telling me you couldn’t sign Bryce or Manny for 10 years and go from there? Seems like a good place to start a rebuild to me. 26-36 is a great performance window too.

In a sense, Verlander has a point. The lack of movement on star free agents has been frustrating to fans and the players. MLB could have benefited from instituting hard deadlines for signing top-tier free agents. The sense of urgency would add intrigue to offseason free agency, and teams wouldn't let Harper or Machado go into February unsigned.

Teams are stalling because the collective-bargaining agreement punishes teams for exceeding the luxury-tax threshold of $206 million. As a result, teams are not rushing to spend massive contracts on players.

The existence of the threshold gives teams justification for limiting their investment in players, which allows teams to take in a larger portion of the sport's increasing revenues. The free-agent market just isn't what it was a few years ago, and so Harper and Machado are left to dangle.